How to beat the heat? Try an ideal
A few years back News 5’s Janelle Chanona unlocked the mystery of that favourite Belizean delicacy called the meat pie. Today, with temperatures hovering near a hundred, it was time to chill out with…what else? That aptly named frozen treat known as ideal.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
With temperatures peaking at a hundred degrees lately, the heat is on to find an ideal way to cool off…and one of those options comes shilling a bag.
And of course, there’s the right way to open the bag…especially if it’s a soft one.
Janelle Chanona
“You put a small hole or a big hole?”
Christina Saragoza, Ideal Drinker
“Wah small hole.”
Janelle Chanona
“Why?”
Christina Saragoza
“Cause I no wah (want) it throw pan (on) me uniform.”
But there’s also taste to consider and according to regular consumers, some brands of sweet liquid beat out others.
Janelle Chanona
“Christina, why you like Tutsi ideal?”
Christina Saragoza
“Cause I love it.”
Janelle Chanona
“Why?”
Christina Saragoza
“Cause it nice.”
Monique Ford, Ideal Drinker
“It nice.”
Janelle Chanona
“Which flavour do you prefer?”
Monique Ford
“The green one.”
Janelle Chanona
“Why?”
Monique Ford
“Because it has a sweeter flavour.”
Jamie Lee Flowers, Ideal Drinker
“Because it cold and I like everything weh (that’s) cold.”
Janelle Chanona
“Why you like Tutsi over Polar Pop?”
Jamie Lee Flowers
“Cause it nice.”
But flavour isn’t the only consideration…ideals have to have the right consistency.
Janelle Chanona
“Which one you prefer, hard or soft?”
Adrian Riverol, Ideal Drinker
“Soft.”
Janelle Chanona
“Why?”
Adrian Riverol
“No like hard, hurt me teeth.”
And when the kids want to try something a little different, this ideal maker offers a somewhat more nutritional ice pop.
Shopkeeper
“Pine, papaya, tamarindo, banana…”
Janelle Chanona
“How they sell?”
Shopkeeper
“Buen, se vende buen, buen.” (Good, they sell good, good.)
Given the language barrier, one older customer was willing to rave about these fruit concoctions.
Michael Lord, Ideal Drinker
“Fruit dah (is) the best thing fu (to) you eat, especially this kind ah heat, you no wah heavy thing you want fruit, papaya, banana, orange…”
Janelle Chanona
“And you prefer this ideal rather than they other one deh?”
Michael Lord
“Sure, it have to be better, that dah sugar, this natural.”
Janelle Chanona
“You prefer it hard, soft, lee bit of ice?”
Michael Lord
“Anyway. Sometime you want it hard, you know mek (let) it last lee longer, you want suck something. Apart from that, you just want something to goggle.”
But obviously, the sweet stuff is what sells. According to this store manager, they retail approximately one thousand ideals a week.
Gisele Sabido, Casa American
“When it’s very hot, they buy it a lot more. But even if the day is rainy, they still buy it a lot, so it doesn’t really matter.”
Which is good news for manufacturers, even though they admit sales do fluctuate during the year.
Donald Hamilton, Plant Mgr., Belize Refrigeration Ltd.
“Our sales are at a high peak. And coming December it will drop about ten percent, not too much, but you can see a little difference in the sales.”
But experts are quick to interject with these facts…
Dr. Christopher Bennett
“Basically an ideal is just sugar and water, and sugar has been shown to cause cavities. And once a person consumes sugar, it only takes three minutes for plaque to turn that sugary thing into acid. And so you can imagine a child that has this drink, even though it’s refreshing and everything, continuously during the day, that child virtually has an acid factory inside their mouth.”
“Because of the time factor with the plaque turning the sugar to acid within three minutes and it remains acid for like twenty-five minutes. SO if you can brush your teeth within that twenty-five minute period, the damage will be minimal. But if you brush it after the twenty-five minutes, the damage is done already.”
Janelle Chanona
“Even though the schoolyard verdict is still out on which ideal most palates prefer, and the dentist tells us they’re not very good for our teeth, you have to admit, on a hot day, they taste really good. Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.”
In case you’re wondering, the term ideal emerged in Belize in the 1960s when the popular condensed milk of the day was Ideal Condensed Milk and street vendors sold it on top of shaved ice. It seems that the modern day version of an ideal trickled down from that practice.
